London could be put into Tier 3 TODAY: MPs are told coronavirus cases in the capital and the Home Counties are ‘off the chart’ as Matt Hancock prepares to update Commons this afternoon
- City could see its hospitality and culture sectors closed down by the end of week
- Shoppers from Tier 2 parts of country barred from shopping in major retail hubs
- Sadiq Khan warns Tier 3 would be ‘catastrophic’ without extra help for business
Ministers could bring forward a decision to plunge millions of Londoners into Tier 3 to today as coronavirus cases in the capital soar ‘off the chart’.
In a move that could devastate businesses just days before Christmas, the city could see its hospitality and culture sectors closed down, with shoppers from Tier 2 zones outside the limits barred from shopping in its major retail hubs like Oxford Street.
MPs were warned this morning that there was ‘exponential growth’ in cases in London’s boroughs and some of the major commuter areas like Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will update MPs on the latest developments in the fight against Covid-19 at 3.30pm today.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said it was ‘possible’ a decision, which was expected on Wednesday, could be brought forward to as early as today, with a key cabinet committee meeting this morning.
He warned Tier 3 would be ‘catastrophic’ without extra help for the city’s businesses, coming in what should be a ‘golden quarter’ of the year before Christmas.
He told Sky News is was ‘possible’ a decision on a tier change could be made today, adding: ‘If the government decides to do that they must provide additional support over and above what has been offered to make sure these businesses go bust,’ he told Sky News.
‘If they go bust not only will it lead to hundreds of thousands of Londoners being made unemployed, but our ability to recover from this pandemic will be made much harder. It is in nobody’s interest for these businesses to go bust, December is a crucial month for many of these business.’
Moving the city and its hinterland up from Tier 2 would be a body-blow for its vital hospitality and retail businesses which have been left at the top of a precipice by the pandemic since March.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said today that Tier 3 would be ‘catastrophic’ without extra help for the city’s businesses, coming in what should be a ‘golden quarter’ of the year before Christmas
London Tory MPs in the briefing this morning urged the PM to avoid a blanket Tier 3 move for the city.
Harrow East Tory Bob Blackman said that the only people who would benefit from the move would be Amazon and other online retailers, with shoppers from Tier 2 areas effectively barred from entering the capital.
He and other Tory MPs wrote to Boris Johnson at the weekend urging him not to inflict ‘untold damage’ on the capital by moving it into Tier 3.
They warned many London Tory MPs could vote against the Government’s Covid approach when it is reviewed next month if the city is plunged into tier 3.
Mr Blackman told MailOnline today that the briefing today involved ‘lots of questions and not many answers’.
‘They are in the position I think of softening everyone up to say ”not only are you going to go into tier 3 but we are going to have to strengthen tier 3 and possibly have a tier 4 doing something else”, which none of us know yet,’ he said.
He suggested that closing secondary schools – one of the main sources of growth in cases – may help to act as a fire-break before restrictions are lifted for five days across Christmas.
Labour’s Bermondsey MP Neil Coyle added: ‘Very grim figures. So angry at repeat failures to properly test and trace, a year after WHO sounded the pandemic alarm. People, especially children, and businesses have been let down so badly.’
In a letter to the Prime Minister, which was jointly signed by London Councils chairwoman Georgia Gould, Mr Khan said the seven-day case rate had risen in 32 local authority areas in the capital compared to the previous week.
There were also 17 boroughs where the seven-day rate exceeded 200 cases per 100,000 people.
According to the latest figures, the borough of Havering has the highest coronavirus rate in London, with 1,314 new cases recorded in the seven days to December 9 – the equivalent of 506.3 cases per 100,000 people.
This is up from a rate of 321.3 in the seven days to December 2.
The figures have been calculated by the PA news agency, based on Public Health England data published on December 13 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.